More than 104 Nigerian soldiers who went missing after a Boko Haram attack on the 162 Battalion base along Mandara-Buratai Road in Borno State on June 5 have been officially declared deserters by the Army, which has frozen their bank accounts — even as their fate remains unknown.
Eight soldiers beheaded. Over a hundred unaccounted for. And the Army’s response? Declare them deserters and freeze their accounts.
SaharaReporters can exclusively reveal that more than 104 Nigerian soldiers attached to the 162 Battalion along the Mandara–Buratai Road in Borno State have been missing for over three weeks following a devastating Boko Haram attack on their base in the early hours of June 5, 2026.
SaharaReporters first reported the attack on June 5, when sources disclosed that terrorists stormed the military position at 4 a.m. during heavy rainfall, catching troops completely off guard.
“They killed eight soldiers and beheaded them. Several others were injured during the attack,” a source said at the time.
Gory images and footage obtained from the scene confirmed the scale of the assault. Yet no official statement has been issued by the Nigerian Army.
Now, more than three weeks later, the silence has given way to something arguably worse. In a military signal exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, the missing soldiers have been formally declared deserters — their bank accounts frozen and all Army formations placed on alert to apprehend them on sight.
“The above-named soldier and 103 others absconded from their place of deployment to an unknown destination on June 5, 2026, with their personal weapons after the BHT/ISWAP attack on our location…the said soldiers have not reported back for duty and are hereby declared deserters with effect from that date,” the signal signed by Lieutenant Ndubuisi read.
Sources are furious — and not buying the Army’s framing.
“Boko Haram slaughtered a Major and seven other soldiers. This is the list of soldiers who cannot be accounted for after the attack. We cannot say whether they are dead or ran away. The Army is trying to hide it from Nigerians,” one source said bluntly.
Whether these soldiers fled in terror, were captured, or died in the chaos of that rainy Friday morning remains unknown. What is clear is that Nigeria’s military would rather label them criminals than confront the catastrophic security failure that left them in that position in the first place.
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